How to Find the Qibla for Prayer

We often find ourselves in nature or in another place where we don't know the geographical orientations. For Muslims, this can be a source of distress because when you don't know the appropriate orientation for Al Qibla, one feels uncomfortable to perform their prayers to an arbitrary orientation. The "Qiblah" is the direction towards which the Muslim prays. This direction is towards the Kabaa in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. We will explain here how to find the right orientation.

Steps

1. Locate where you are in regards to Makkah, Saudi Arabia
2. Turn towards that direction.

Using The Sun

Instead of using a compass, you may wish to use the sun, taking into account the time of day and year, and location, and that the sun rises in the east and sets towards the west.

1. You need an accurate watch with arms. If you don't have one you can imagine yourself wearing one.
2. Make the shorter arm of your watch oriented to the sun:
   • The median between the shorter arm of your watch and the 12 sign is the orientation of the south.
   • If you find the south then you can find your orientation and thus the one of the Qibla in the location you are in. Look at the south, the north is behind you, the east is on your left and the west is on the right.
3. Keep in mind that the sun moves from the east (at the sun rise) to the south (at noon) to the west (at sunset).

Tips

• If you know that you'll go in a picnic or that you'll need to know an orientation, be sure to watch the sun and remember how to find you orientation.
• QiblaDirection.com will use GoogleMaps to draw a line between your location and Makkah. You can then use your local surroundings to know which direction to pray in. What is more, is that this site is mobile phone friendly.
• If you have a PDA, there are some free Islamic softwares that can show you Al Qibla during day light or night based on your location and the location of the sun and the moon!
• You may wish to use a compass to find the correct direction after finding which direction to face (ex. from Detroit, MI you face NE)
• You can use a service such as Islamic Finder to locate where the qiblah is from different places around the world
• Mosques face towards the Qiblah, or have lines on the ground showing you where to stand
• You may ask someone which way it is
• Prayer mats are sold which contains a compass pointing towards the Qiblah
• In the UK all Sky Satellite dishes point towards Qibla, so just point and pray if you're really stuck!

Warnings

• The sun rises and sets in different places depending on the time of year(summer vs. winter) you may not have that problem if you live somewhere with no seasons
• to use a compass on a prayer mat, you need to know your city or metropolitan area's code.